The present invention relates to a counting apparatus that counts the number of times a mold closes and more particularly to a counting apparatus that can be reset to zero.
Companies that manufacture or produce molded parts need to track mold activity for several reasons, including, but not limited to: 1) monitoring their supply usage; 2) determining supply purchase frequency; 3) tracking the number of pieces manufactured in a given period of time; and 4) determining how much money the company can make on their produced parts. Therefore, the companies count the number of parts produced and keep a manual record of that information. Counting apparatuses are useful because they validate the manually kept records.
Apparatuses for counting the number of times a mold closes are well known. Typically, the counters include a counter display and a triggering mechanism that triggers the counter to increase by one. The counters are mounted to one section of the mold base. Further, the counter detects when one section of the base comes in contact with another section of the base. The contact between the sections occurs when the mold is being closed to produce a part. Once the counter detects contact between sections, the counter display is triggered to increase by the number of units associated with the closing of the mold (usually one), thus reflecting the number of mold assemblies representative of the number of parts produced.
Prior art, counters may also be mounted on a mold section. The prior art counter may include a body, a counter display and an internal, purely mechanical trigger. The body is flush with the mold section, so that it does not interfere with construction of the mold sections. The mechanical trigger includes a moveable arm that extends from the body and is not flush with the mold section. The arm remains extended until it comes into contact with another mold section. When the arm comes into contact with another mold section, the arm is pushed into the counter body, thus triggering the counter to increase by one.
Three prior art versions of the counters exist. The first version is mounted by sink fitting it along the parting line of the mold block. The second version is an internal extension mount. Essentially, this version contains an extension that fits on the moveable arm so that the counter can be mounted away from a parting line. The third version is an externally mounted, two-piece assembly that can be added to the mold without sink fitting.
A disadvantage of this type of counter is that there is no way to reset the counter display back to a specific reading or a zero reading. The beginning number needs to be recorded and some arithmetic needs to be performed to calculate the number of pieces produced. This added step increases the amount of time required to use the counter. Further, if the beginning number is not recorded, then the counter becomes useless for subsequent uses.
The counting apparatus of the present invention overcomes the above problem with known counting mechanisms. In general terms, this invention is an apparatus having a resettable counter for counting the number of times a mold closes. The number of times a mold closes is representative of the number of pieces created by the mold. The apparatus includes a body that is mountable to a mold block, an electronic counting mechanism connected to the body, and a reset mechanism connected to the body for resetting the counting mechanism to zero. This invention is also advantageous because it is smaller in size than other available models and is more versatile because it has several different triggering configurations.